Board joint reinforcement



BOAl-"(D JOINT RE ENFORCEMENT .Filed March 5, 1958 a Z7 18 Z1 14 I. VENTOR HARE L/NZELL A TTORNE Y7 Patented Aug. 29, 1939 UNITED STATES BOARD JOINT REINFORCEMENT Harry K. Linzell, Ingleside, 111., assignor to United States Gypsum Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application March 3, 1938, Serial No. 193,690

10 Claims.

This invention relates to building constructions, and has reference more particularly to a reinforcement for the joints of building boards serving as a base for plaster.

5 In the erection of building boards adapted to serve as a base for plaster, it is desirable to place strips of reinforcing material over the joints between boards so as to prevent joint cracks in the overlying plaster. Any reinforcement must necessarily be low in cost, free of laborious operations on the job, and permit convenient shipment of the boards in bundles.

An object of this invention therefore, is to pro vide a reinforcement for the edges of building 15 boards which will prevent cracking of overlying plaster at the board joints.

Another object of the invention is to provide a board reinforcement which is low in cost, is easily applied on the job with a minimum of labor, and which will permit convenient shipment of the boards in bundles; also to improve building board reinforcements and building constructions in other respects. hereinafter specified and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which-- Fig. 1 is a plan view of the preferred form of board joint reinforcement,

Fig. 2 is an edge view of same,

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a modified form of joint reinforcement,

Fig. 4 is an edge view of the reinforcement shown in Fig. 3,

Fig. 5 is a sectional view through two shiplap edge boards in edge abutting relation with the reinforcement in inoperative position,

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 but with the reinforcement extending across the joint,

Fig. '7 is a. sectional view similar to Fig. 6 but employing tongue and groove edge boards,

Fig. 8 is a sectional view through the modified form of joint with the reinforcement shown in Figs. 3 and 4 in operative position.

Fig. 9 is a sectional view through the board joint with the reinforcement extending across the joint,

Fig. 10 is a face view of a board with the joint reinforcement of Figs. 1 and 2 shown in operative 50 position, and

Fig. 11 is a face view of a building wall with the reinforcement of Fig. 11 extending across the joint.

Referring to 56 ing boards I of wood or other vegetable fibers,

the drawing by numerals, buildor of paper covered gypsum, or of other suitable compositions, are preferably provided with shiplap interlocking edges H or tongue and groove edges l2. Bevels l3 are also provided at the edges of the board on the face designed to receive 5 a coating of plaster l4. These boards H] are attached by nails ii to studs or joists [6 with the long dimension of the boards extending transversely of the studs l6 so as to form a wall or ceiling. The boards 10 customarily have the 10 dimensions 16 inches by 48 inches so that the boards extend across three studs spaced 16 inches on centers with vertical joints staggered.

The salient feature of my invention consists in the novel form of joint reinforcement used to prevent cracking of the plaster l4 over the board joints. This reinforcement comprises a wire I8 bent into general zig-zag form with alternate pointed sections l9 and square sections 20 along one edge and square sections 2| along the other 20 edge. Slightly inclined wire sections 22 join the sections I9, 20 and 2| to form a continuous strip of wire reinforcement which can be easily formed on an automatic wire bending machine. The

sections 20 are attached to the board l0 adja- 25 cent one long edge thereof, by means of staples 2| which form hinges about which the reinforcement can be rotated through 180 into operative position lying across the joint between boards. Connecting section 25 between the staple legs preferably tapers outwardly from the face of the board to permit the reinforcement to lie flat against the face of the board when in operative position. It will be observed that the pointed sections l9 extend outwardly beyond the square sections 20 so that during the act of turning the reinforcing strip into operative position across the joint, the pointed sections I9 cause the reinforcing strip to be momentarily warped and to swing into operative position with a snapping action. In other words, after the reinforcement has been manually swung through an arc of somewhat more than 90, the spring action of the pointed sections IS on the face of the board Ill, causes the reinforcement to snap into the 180 position without further effort on the part of the workman.

Furthermore, it will be noted (Fig. 2) that the pointed sections I9 are bent slightly out of the plane of the reinforcement at l8 so that in operative position the reinforcement is pressed tightly against the face of the adjacent board by the spring pressure of the pointed section is on the face of the board. The pointed section l9 also holds the adjacent wire sections 22 slightly away from the face of the board it so that when the plaster it is troweled onto the face of the board (Figs. 6 and 9), the plaster fiows in between the wire sections 22 and the face of the board, thus establishing a firm anchorage with the joint reinforcement. In practice, a single rotating effort applied by the workman at one end of the reinforcement, causes the entire length of reinforcement to automatically flip over into operative position across the board joint with a minimum of labor requirement. The reinforcement neednot be nailed or stapled into omrative position, since the spring action of the pointed sections 89 on the face of the board avoids this by causing the reinforcement to be held firmly into operative position under spring action. The reinforcement is ordinarily placed only along the long edges of the board, but may be also placed along the short edges if desired. When the reiniorcements lie in inoperative position against the face of the boards, the latter may be conveniently stacked or bundled in face abutting relation for shipment.

In the form of the device shown in Figs. 3, 4, 8 and 9, pointed sections 26 are provided opposite pointed sections 2?, the tips of each of said pointed sections 26 and 27 being pressed slightly outwardly from the plane of the reinforcement (Figs. 8 and 9), thus holding both sides of the reinforcement slightly spaced-from the face of the board to permit proper keying of the plaster with the reinforcement.

I would state in conclusion that while the illustrated example constitutes a practical embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to limit myself precisely to these details, since manifestly, the same may be considerably varied without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a board joint reinforcement, the combination with, a building board, of a zig-zag wire hingedly mounted adjacent one edge of said board, said wire reinforcement having square sections and pointed sections extending beyond said square sections so as to cause said reinforcement to swing into operative position across a board joint with a spring action.

2. In a board joint reinforcement, the combination with a building board, of a zig-zag wire having square sections and pointed sections, and means for hingedly connecting said square sections to said board adjacent the edge thereof.

3. In. a board joint reinforcement, a zig-zag wire having protruding sections of different lengths, means for hingedly connecting some of said shorter sections to a building board adjacent an edge thereof.

4. In a board joint reinforcement, a zig-zag wire having protruding sections of different lengths, and means for hingedly connecting some of said shorter sections to a building board adjacent an edge thereof, some of said longer sections being inclined out of the plane of the reinforcement so as to cause said reinforcement to lie fiat in operative position over a board joint under spring pressure of said inclined sections on the face of said board.

5. In a board joint reinforcement, the combination with a building board, of a zig-zag wire hingedly mounted adjacent one edge of said board, said reinforcement having oppositely directed pointed sections, and intermediate square sections of shorter length than said pointed sections and adapted to be hingedly connected to the face of a board, said pointed sections being bent out of the plane of the reinforcement so as to space the reinforcement away from the face of the board and provide proper keying of applied plaster to said reinforcement.

6. In a board joint reinforcement, an elongated reinforcing element having edge protruding loop sections of different lengths forming continuous parts of said reinforcing element, and means for hingedly connecting some of said shorter sections to a building board adjacent an edge thereof.

7. In a board joint reinforcement, an elongated reinforcing element having protruding sections of different lengths, and means for hingedly connecting some of said shorter sections to a building board adjacent an edge thereof, some of said longer sections being inclined 'out of the plane of the reinforcement so as to cause said reinforcement to lie fiat in operative position over a board joint under spring pressure of said inclined sections on the face of said board.

8. The combination with a wallboard having an elongated joint reinforcing element and a hinge securing said element to said board adjacent the edge thereof for movement from a position contiguous to the surface of said board inwardly of the hinge axis to a position to contiguously overlie a closely adjacent board, of P means automatically operative between said axis and said board and resiliently associated with said element to cause resilient pressure against said board and to thereby enable said element to be swung on said hinge from one extreme position to the other with a toggle-like snap action.

9. The combination with a wallboard having an elongated joint reinforcing element and a hinge securing said element to said board adjacent the edge thereof for swinging movement from contiguous the surface of said board inwardly of said hinge to a position to contiguously overlie a closely adjacent board, of means movable with said element and resiliently engaging said board to cause a snap action of said element from substantially the dead center position of said element to either of said contiguous positions.

10. A wallboard having an elongated joint reinforcing resilient element and a hinge securing said element snugly to said board on an axis intermediate the extreme longitudinal edges of said element and adjacent the edge of said board for swinging movement from contiguous the surface of said board inwardly of said hinge to a position to contiguously overlie a closely adjacent board, said element and said hinge being pivotally related to cause a portion of said resilient element to apply resilient pressure between said board and said hinge to cause a snap action of said element from substantially the dead cented position to either of said contiguous positions.

HARRY K. LINZELL. 

